Factors affecting prospective entrepreneurs to utilize e-marketplace A study of business school students in Indonesia

Currently, e-marketplace utilization grows significantly both on the buying side as well as on the selling side. However, the complete utilization rate is still low. Hence, this study investigates the factors considered by the prospective entrepreneurs to utilize the e-marketplace. The purpose of this study is also to find out the most potential e-marketplace to be employed by the prospective entrepreneurs. This study distributes questionnaires by using a convenience sampling technique to the 285 students at a business school. This study applies the Importance Performance Analysis and Correspondence Analysis methods to process the data gathered. It is found that the trust factor becomes the least important factor as well as the worst performance factor at the same time. On the other hand, the technical factor becomes the most important factor and the environmental factor is recorded as the best performance factor. To utilize e-marketplace, prospective entrepreneurs pay the highest attention to several indicators such as latency, user friendly, marketing, supply chain, price competitiveness, service quality, support/helpdesk, and bank transfer. Furthermore, Tokopedia and Shopee are rated as the best e-marketplaces. This study illuminates the prospective entrepreneurs’ consideration toward e-marketplace utilization; hence the platform owner can make a better service. The findings of the study will inspire the preparation steps for entrepreneurs to start their businesses and enrich the online consumer buying decision theory.